Blizzcon 2017 Dark’s Macro Ling Bane Pressure ZvZ

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Vod Analysis

Dark uses this build to apply pressure to Elazer while making drone’s behind and times out a baneling harass during his main zergling push to kill drones in Elazer’s natural base.

By doing this he creates time for himself to drone up and also pressure’s Elazer, killing a lot of drones with the baneling harass or getting a good baneling hit on the main attack would almost certainly mean the game was won by Dark however Dark gets neither of these but isn’t behind because he drone’s behind it and forces Elazer to make Zerglings to defend.

This build is difficult to play against because it can be difficult to know what units you are making. Many players will flood ling bane on 3 base, 2.5 saturation (See PiG’s 3 base aggression buid) so it is very easy to make too many defensive units against a build like this. When using the build it is important to identify a Zerg player who is over committing to defense since you will likely need to build more ling bane to defend your own third once they decide to attack. (You can keep sending in 2x banelings while they attack if you have the apm/ability too).

Dark’s timings:

Notes

I put Dark’s timing due to ZvZ being a volatile match-up. Most of the time you will need to make things at a different time due to what your opponent is doing and how much they are droning. In this game, Elazer drone’s a lot so Dark is able to do the same and is at 60 workers by the 6:00 mark. However, if your opponent makes lots of lings because they think you are all-in or they commit to defense and decide to attack, you will need to make more ling bane to defend and delay the roach transition. If this is the case a spine crawler maybe helpful as well as more queen production. You can also do another ling bane wave with the multiprong banelings into the natural. Other wise, the beginning of the build can be followed without caring too much about what your opponent is doing (except for really aggressive builds like 13/12 or if they are doing 2 base play or a weird fast tech like mutas, each of these will require deviation in the build)